Improving Implementation by National Regulatory Authorities. EIPAScope, 2003(3): pp. 26-30

National regulatory authorities (NRAs) in the liberalised utility markets have a significant role in policy making and policy enforcement. Much of the debate about them has revolved around their independence from Member State governments, yet independence alone is not sufficient to ensure effective regulation across the internal market. Poor co-operation procedures among NRAs, lack of regulatory impact assessment procedures and weak decision-making procedures between an NRA and the Commission may seriously hamper the functioning of the internal market for telecom and electricity. By bringing the NRAs together and establishing a veto rule, the Commission is on the right track concerning the telecom sector. Yet further improvements can be made by setting general EU regulatory principles in close relation with common transparency obligations in NRA decision-making

Non-trivial flat connections on the 3-torus II: The exceptional groups F_4 and E_6,7,8

We continue the construction of non-trivial vacua for gauge theories on the 3-torus, started in hep-th/9901154. Application of constructions based on twist in SU(N) with N > 2 produce more extra vacua in theories with exceptional groups. We calculate the relevant unbroken subgroups, and their contribution to the Witten index. We show that the extra vacua we find in the exceptional groups are sufficient to solve the Witten index problem for these groups.Comment: LaTeX, 25 pages, 1 figur

Short range radio research in Twente

The research and education by the Telecommunication Engineering Group at the University of Twente is dedicated to physical layer topics in communications. Three research tracks have prominence: Short Range Radio, Microwave Photonics, and Electromagnetic Compatibility. Arjan is active in the Short Range Radio division, and will briefly outline the interests and activities of this group. Furthermore he will present some results of the research that he did during his short sabbatical in Belfast last year. This concerns the performance analysis of a frequency offset modulation scheme using wideband noise carriers. The main advantage of such a scheme is that it enables fast receiver synchronization without channel adaptation, while providing robustness to multipath fading and in-band interference. This is important for low-power wireless systems with bursty traffic, such as sensor networks. In the talk a semi-analytical framework for evaluating its bit error rate performance in wideband frequency-selective fading channels will be described. Some numerical results will be presented, based on channel models developed in the IEEE 802.15.4a channel modeling subgroup. These illustrate that the considered system can be designed with a lower fading margin than a narrowband system

Gift-Exchange, Incentives, and Heterogeneous Workers

By incorporating reciprocity in an otherwise standard principal-agent model, I investigate the relation between monetary gift-exchange and incentive pay, while allowing for worker heterogeneity. I assume that some, but not all, workers care more for their principal when they are convinced that the principal cares for them. The principal can be egoistic or altruistic. Absent worker heterogeneity, an altruistic principal signals his altruism by offering relatively weak incentives and a relatively high expected total compensation. However, the latter is not always required to credibly signal altruism. Furthermore, since some workers do not reciprocate the principal’s altruism, the principal may find it optimal to write a contract that simultaneously signals his altruism and screens reciprocal worker types. Such a contract is characterised by excessively strong incentives and a relatively high expected total compensation.reciprocity, gift-exchange, signaling game, incentive contracts, screening